A different path
by bugzadc
Summary: What would happen if Naruto discovered the Kage bunshin learning method on his own and trained like crazy to protect his precious people? How different would his life be?
1. Chapter 1

"Sorry I'm late. I spilled some salt so I had to find a four leaf clover to get lucky again.'

Kakashi's team face faulted at his ridiculous excuse.

"Alright team, Sasuke come with me to train, Naruto go do chakra control or something, and Sakura you can come watch Sasuke if you want."

After issuing his instructions, kakashi walked off with Sasuke, Sakura trailing behind with hearts in her eyes going on about how awesome Sasuke is.

The team had just returned to Konoha from the mission in Wave and Naruto was still upset about Haku dying. He realized that Haku was so strong because he protected his precious person and Naruto wanted to be stronger too in order to protect his precious people, but Kakashi wasnt training him at all. All the lazy bastard did was teach Sasuke teme.

Naruto was pissed off because he wanted to learn stuff so he could beat Sasuke and protect his precious people, but Kakashi wouldnt help him at all. Naruto slumped off to Ichiraku's to get some ramen to cheer himself up mumbling all the way about "emo jerks" and "lazy perverts."

"one bowl of miso ramen and a bowl of beef ramen!" Naruto shouted out to Ayame. After eating 37 bowls in the period of just 4 minutes- an all time new record- Naruto reached for Gama-Chan to pay.

"Shit, Gama-chan isnt in my pocket"

Teuchi told Naruto that he couldn't leave because his tab was to high so he was going to have to wash some dishes to pay off his 37 bowls.

Naruto however, hated cleaning so he summoned a shadow clone to go get gama-chan while he waited at ichiraku's.

After paying off old man ichiraku, naruto realized something-' holy shit, I remember going to get my money when didnt'

"Yatta!" Naruto yelled. "If I learn stuff with kage bunshins I can make a lot of them to learn lots of stuff!"

Naruto was really eager to become the best ninja ever and beat Sasuke-teme. Although Naruto hated reading, he quickly ran to the library. After entering the Shinobi-only section, he summoned 20 shadow clones. He had 15 of them go read scrolls on nin-jutsus and take notes, 2 to do the same for chakra control, 2 did the same for tai-jutsu, and he himself and the last clone read up on some weapon techniques. Four hours later, all his clones had finished reading and taking notes on their scrolls. Naruto dispersed all his clones at once and quickly got a headache from learning to much at once. Naruto had learnt from one of the tai-jutsu scrolls that he should wear weights and he decided that the coolest weapons from the weapon scrolls were katanas and nun-chakus. After getting his new gear, Naruto went home and quickly collapsed from tiredness and information overload.

The next day, after a _very_ healthy breakfast of instant ramen, Naruto ran to a training field he quickly summoned 300 clones and sent 20 clones off to work on tree-climbing , and 20 clones off to figure out how to walk on water. He had 15 clones work on katas with his katana and another 15 work on using the nunchakus. He also had 30 clones go off and work on tai-jutsu katas. He then has groups of 13 clones each working on his 12 new jutsus. He himself quickly strapped on his weights and began slowly running laps around the field to get used to the weights. After training for three hours, Naruto quickly dispersed his clones in groups of five, that was the msot he could take without getting a huge headache. After they were all dispersed, Naruto found that he could go all the way up a tree no problem, could stand and walk on water, could do 5 of the 12 jutsus, and new come awesome new tai-jutsu and weapong moves. Naruto ran off so that he could make it to his team meeting at 12 on time. Although he doubted it would matter- Kakashi was always late anyway and after he showed up he'd probably just want to train Sasuke.

After scarfing down 15 bowls of ramen, Naruto raced to the meeting, barely making it there in time because he still wasn't completely used to his weights. Two hours later, Kakashi finally showed up and mumbled some stupid excuse to his team about having to help a convention of old ladies carry their groceries home. After their daily d-rank, Kakashi went off to train Sasuke. Naruto eagerly jumped in front of Sakura.

"Neh, Sakura chan! Wanna go on a date with me?"

"No way dobe! Sasuke kun is so much cooler and stronger than you" And with that rejection Sakura ran after Sasuke to watch him train.

'Stronger?' Naruto thought to himself. 'I'll show them, I'm going to be the strongest ninja ever!' Naruto rushed back to train some more, but this time he summoned another 20 clones to go to the library and read up on some more katas and jutsus with instructions to disperse themselves as soon as they finished reading their scrolls.

Naruto practiced late into the night, he and his clones training to exhaustion. At eleven, he passed out falling asleep on the training ground. He himself had become completely used to his weights and had done physical training and laps for hours. His clones had worked on the tree exercise and water exercise until they could spar while on either surface no problem. And he was now the proud master of 15 Jutsus besides for the academy three and kage bunshin. This became Naruto's routine, day in and day out, clones learning jutsus and katas while he physicly trained, and missions with his team and worthless sensei.


	2. Chapter 2

It was three weeks after Naruto's new training regiment began, and all the Jounin Senseis were called to the Hokage's office. He announced that the chunin exams would be soon and asked if any sensei's felt their teams were ready. One by one, the sensei's for all the rookies stood up and said their teams were ready. Later, after all the other Jounin's had left, Kurenai Yuhi addressed the Hokage.

"Hokage Sama, are there any unused training grounds with a lake that I can use? I want my genin to learn water-walking before the exams"

The Hokage told her that she and her team could use training grounds 37.

The next day, she headed off to the new training ground to meet her team 45 mintues early, unlike soume perverted jounins she knew who were always late because they were too busy walking around with their heads stuck in orange books. Kurenai was about to step into the clearing, when she saw a boy wearing all orange lying on the ground. She realized it was Naruto Uzumaki and decided o give him a few minutes to wake up on his own before going over to wake him up. However, this was unnecessary as five minutes later, Naruto sprang up from the ground mumbling something about how he shouldn't have upped his weights so much in one go. Kurenai was about to go over to him and tell him that her team needed the field when she heard him yell.

"Shit! I only have an hour to train before I have to go"

She watched in astonishment as he summoned 50 clones and they all began to spar on the lake. After Naruto had defeated all the clones using tai jutsu, jutsu, and kenjutsu that was very advanced for a genin, especially a dead last genin, Kurenai jumped down from the tree she had been in and called out to Naruto " I guess Kakashi is a much better sensai that I thought"

Naruto looked shocked that someone had been watching him, but promptly fell over laughing after realizing what Kurenai had said.

"I wasn't aware that what I said was so funny"

"Gomen Kurenai Sensei, its just that Kakashi sensei hasn't taught me anything at all except for tree climbing. He only teaches Sasuke."

Kurenai was both furious and confused. The former, because it was wrong for a sensei to neglect their students and play favorites, and the latter because she didn't understand how Naruto could be so good without any training help. She'd seen his academy grades, she knew he wasn't exactly the greatest, and that was putting it kindly, very very kindly.

"Naruto, if no one trained you, how do you know so much? The skill levels you're exhibiting are very high for your age"

Naruto blushed in embarrassment, obviously not used to any form of praise and responded that he trained himself because he needed to be able to protect everyone that was precious to him. Kurenai was very upset over the boy's neglect and moved by his desire to help everyone so she decided to help him out.

"Naruto, can you do any gen-jutsu" Kurenai asked.

After Naruto shook his head no, Kurenai made him an offer "If you'd like, you can meet me here later and I'll train you a bit."

Naruto broke into a wide grin and yelled "Really?"

"Yes, really" Kurenai laughed at his excitement. All of a sudden, Naruto frowned, " Are you sure you want to help me? Not even my own sensei will help me and you do have your own team."

Kurenai bent down until her eyes were level with his.

"Naruto, I don't know why Kakashi isn't helping you at all, but he should be and I would be honored to help train someone with goals as worthy as yours"

Naruto grinned in response and thanked her.

"Meet me here at 5 o'clock tonight, but for now you have to go because this is my team's training field now"

Naruto began to run off, but stopped to yell back "Hai Sensei!"

………………………………………………………………………………………………

At their team meeting that day, Kakshi told them that the chunin exams would be in two weeks, so they wouldn't be doing any missions for a while.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Ohaya Kurenai Sensei"

Kurenai had Naruto sit down and asked him if he knew anything at all about gen-jutsus. Naruto, a little embarrassed, shook his head no. Kurenai, seeing his unease, hurried to reassure him. "Naruto, even though you have no skills with this, your skills in other areas are great for someone your age. And, it's not your fault, if Kakashi did his job, then you would no this stuff.

"Hai" Naruto nodded. For the next hour, Kurenai continually cast gen-jutsus on Naruto while he furiously tried to stop his chakra flow in order to escape the illusions.

"I don't get it!" Naruto yelled in frustration. "Why cant I do it?"

"Naruto, calm down, not everyone an. However, there are two other ways to escape a gen-jutsu. You can hurt yourself, but I wouldn't recommend that at all, or you can release a burst of chakra to disrupt the genjutsu. Now I want to see you try that, ok?"

"Hai Sensei"

Kurenai quickly placed Naruto under a genjutsu and he gathered his chakra and had no problem pushing it out to escape the illusion.

"Yatta! I did it!" As Naruto did a celebratory lap around the field, Kurenai laughed at her students antics.

'my student? I just me the boy, why am I thinking of him as my student?' Kurenai wondered to herself, but her thoughts were disrupted by Naruto.

"Sensei, do you want to maybe go get some dinner, my treat, for helping me? I want to say thank you."

Kurenai accepted and they walked off together away from the training grounds.

As they walked, they passed a restaurant Kurenai like.

"How about this one Naruto?"

Naruto looked a little nervous but just responded "Sure"

"Naruto, is there a problem?"

"No sensai just give me a sec, ok?"

Naruto paused and quickly put a henge on to transform his notable features.

"What are you doing Naruto?"

"Well, not all the restaurants like to let me in and some of the ones that do overcharge me. I may be stupid, but I know a glass of water shouldn't cost 50 ryou."

Kurenai quickly became very mad at the thought that Naruto was refused service in places.

"Sensai, its ok, I don't mind."

"No Naruto, its not ok. How about you come to my house and I'll make dinner for us?"

Naruto quickly agreed, but was a little upset that he couldn't get his new Sensei dinner as a thank you.

After they ate, they sat down to talk for a bit. Kurenai asked Naruto why his grades were so bad in the academy if he was clearly able to learn things very well.

"Well, I used to think it was my fault, I thought I was stupid. But, now that I see how much I learned, I realized that it was just that the teachers in the academy didn't want to help me. Just like Kakashi."

Naruto looked pained at having to admit this, so Kurenai quickly reached over to give him a hug. Naruto looked shocked at the physical touch. 'no one has ever hugged me before…', but he quickly slumped into the hug and began to cry. Naruto fell asleep in Kurenai's arms and she laid him down to sleep on her couch.

Kurenai sat in a chair watching the blond boy as he slept. She couldn't believe how awful his life seemed. She slowly began to release some killer intent in anger at the villagers when she heard a knock at her door. Getting up to answer it, she saw it was her friend Anko. After stepping into Kurenai's living room, Anko asked with a wide grin on her face " Whats this Kurenai chan? Cheating on me with some jail bait?"

"Haha anko how funny yes I was actually planning to molest him."

"Can I help? He looks yummy for a genin?"

Kurenai sighed and sat down, no longer in the mood for her friend's perverted antics.

She explained to Anko what she had learned of the boy so far.

'He's like me, Anko thought to herself'

"I can understand why you're helping him Kurenai, he deserves a lot better than what he's been dealt."

"Hai" Kurenai muttered in a tired voice.

Seeing that her friend was tired, and would most definitely not want to be going out for a drink, Anko got up and left.


	3. Chapter 3

The two weeks leading up to the chunin exams were a time of quick development for Naruto: physically, mentally, and emotionally. He continued to train hard in the mornings and afternoons honing his skills. However, each night is when the biggest changes in Naruto took place. Working with Kurenai and talking with her each night gave Naruto a sense of worth that he'd never had before. Every day for two hours, she worked with him on his gen-jutsu skills showing him that he does deserve help. He now knew that it wasn't that he wasn't worth helping because he was stupid. It was just the prejudice of the academy teachers that held him back before. After each session, Naruto and Kurenai would eat dinner together. Naruto knew he was no longer a dobe or a dead last, Kurenai had shown him that, and he was tired of looking like it.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"N…Naruto? What are you wearing?"

Naruto gave a small grin and responded to his bewildered pink haired teammate, "I believe it's called clothing, would you prefer it if I were naked?"

Naruto had gotten rid of the jumpsuit, he now sported steel toed boots, baggy black ninja pants, and a red muscle shirt under a flowing white coat that went down to the middle of his thighs. Over the past five weeks, Naruto had changed a lot physically, but he hadn't felt the need to show off his new skills to his teammates, nor had it been necessary to do so on the pointless d- ranks they had. However, due to his new found desire to not be seen as a dobe, he had chosen to unveil his new skills at the exams.

***************************Flashback************************

"Kurenai Sensei, do you think tomorrow you could help me get some new clothes?"

"Sure Naruto, but why do you want my help and why are you changing your clothes?"

Naruto paused for a moment before answering all the while thinking how he could phrase it best to prevent Kurenai from getting mad at the villagers.

" W…Well, it would be useful to have someone else's opinion on my clothes and I just think its time for a change." Naruto finally spoke with little conviction.

"Naruto, that's not why, is it?" Naruto regretfully admitted that he wanted some help in case he was refused service and that he wanted the new clothes because he didn't want people to think of him as the dead last anymore. Kurenai just cringed and said

"Alright Naruto, tomorrow we'll do that, but for now we have work to do."

*************************End Flashback*********************

Naruto zoned back into the present in time to hear Sakura sputtering, searching for something to say. Finally, she smacked Naruto on the head while yelling

"Baka! Stop trying to be cooler than Sasuke-kun!"

Naruto rubbed his head and retorted "Whatever Sakura, let's just go take the test."

Team 7 walked up the stairs towards room 301. They got off the stairs and saw a huge group of genin clustered around a door being blocked by two chunin. Cries to be let in could be heard throughout the room. With a smirk of arrogance on his face, Sasuke stepped forward and demanded that the Gen-jutsu be released. Naruto sighed to himself '_the jerk just had to make sure everyone knew that he figured out it was a gen-jutsu, he couldn't just walk past it and let these teams get cut out.' _

Naruto walked away from his team to continue to the third floor. Fifteen minutes later, Sasuke and Sakura showed up, the former with a lovely black eye. Naruto raised his eyebrows in a questioning way, but Sasuke just glared at him in response.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

'Shit' Naruto thought to himself. Although he had changed greatly physically over the past five weeks, and was now great at the practical part of being a ninja, he was still awful when it came to written tests. Naruto groaned to himself, head in his hands. '_Why are these questions so hard? I can't be the only one who can't figure this out. These are just impossible' _Naruto was panicking; his feelings of inadequacy that had only recently dissipated started to wash over him again. As the sweat dripped down his face, Naruto noticed that Hinata had her Byakugan active. '_Wait a second… I'm an idiot! You're supposed to cheat. The test is super hard because they want us to cheat._ _Now how can I go about it…'_ Naruto grinned to himself finally remembering that he had hidden in his sleeve, a kage bunshin transformed into a spider. He quickly sent it out to look over other answers. A few minutes later, a proctor noticed the spider crawling up the edge of someone's desk and flicked a senbon at it. His eyes widened as he saw it poof into smoke and he wondered which genin he had just helped. Naruto quickly filled out the answers to the four questions he had been able to get before his bunshin was hit and waited for the tenth question to be asked. The scarred, smirking proctor stood up in the front of the room. "I will now give the tenth and final question. This question is different from the others- you can choose whether or not you wish to take it. If you choose not to take it, you and all your teammates fail and must leave immediately. However, if you take it, and get it wrong…" At this point Ibiki stopped and chuckled menacingly, "Well, if you get it wrong you'll be stuck as a genin forever." Naruto just sat there staring at Ibiki, resolute to take it. After all, the first part was a trick, so the second part probably was too, right? However, many in the room didn't share his resolve. One by one, teams dropped out leaving the room, too scared to try the question. All of a sudden, Naruto sprang up from his seat "Don't underestimate me! I'll take it! I am not afraid." With that, Naruto sat back down and stared at Ibiki in defiance. Ibiki saw no one was getting up after Naruto's little speech, so he looked up at the Genin and announced " You 78… all pass!" Ibiki quickly explained that the test was to examine the genin's spying skills and their resolve. However, there was no time for the genin to celebrate, as through the window burst a woman, Anko Mitarashi, if the sign pinned to the walls with kunai was to be trusted.

"What the hell? Ibiki, you left 26 teams?! You made the exam too easy."

Ibiki just looked back at her, and said "This time there are a lot of good ones" he said tilting his head slightly toward Naruto. Anko had no idea what the brat had done, but she was very curios, that was the gaki Kurenai had been helping… the one like her. Quickly shaking off her thoughts on the boy, Anko called out "Follow me, but be careful, by the end of my exam, at least half of you will be done."

With that warning, Anko jumped from the room, genin trailing her in anticipation of the exam to come.


	4. Chapter 4

_**So, I just realized I never put this before my other chapters, and figured I should. Just to clarify, I don't own Naruto. **_

Mutterings of "This is creepy" and "what is this place" abounded in the crowd of nervous genins. The proctor Anko let them wonder and stared at them as they grew more nervous

and tense. Her mind however was on other things. '_That was Kurenai's gaki that Ibiki nodded to… I wonder what he did. I guess I have to wait until this test is over, but that doesn't _

_mean I can't do something to test him here…_' All of a sudden, Anko's thoughts were interrupted as she heard someone call out above everyone else "I refuse to be

afraid!" Anko looked up and smirked when she saw who had made the comment. '_Well, this does give me an opportunity to test him…_' Anko thought as she launched a kunai at

him. Anko sped behind Naruto to lick at his tasty blood, but Naruto had leaned just a little to the right, avoiding the Kunai. Anko leaned against Naruto and sighed into his ear.

"It's a shame, I was looking forward to trying your blood."

"Well you wouldn't be the 1st to want some of my blood for no reason, can't say anyone's ever wanted a taste though." For just a second, Naruto's eyes flashed with the

pain and sadness of someone who'd never been loved. Anko saw it and faltered for a second, her eye's the same as Naruto's, before putting her smirk back on.

"You're a spirited one. To bad ones like you are quickly killed, spraying that red blood I love." Naruto quirked an eyebrow in response and responded:

"Well its not like you were able to get any of it." Anko grinned. "Guess I'll have to fix that." She reached towards his cheek, kunai in hand, only to be interrupted at the sight of

a tongue, kunai in grasp reaching forwards. "Here's your Kunai" the creepy grass ninja said. "Why thank you." Anko responded. "But unless you want to die, don't sneak up

behind me." Anko strode toward the front of the group once again and announced "Before we start the second test, there's something I have to hand out. You brats have to

sign these wavers. There will be lots of lovely deaths in this exam, and I don't want them to be my responsibility. Alright, after you sign, each time will go to that booth over there

and get either a heaven or an earth scroll. You're job will be to survive in here for five days, get whichever scroll your missing, and make it to the tower alive. Have fun, and

remember there are no rules. But, you might want to watch out for the man eating beasts, poisonous plants, and poisonous insects. I love those cuddly things, but other people

don't. I wonder why…" Everyone shivered, but signed their forms and began to walk over to the booth to get their scroll. "Oh yea" Anko added " Anyone who tries to open

their scroll before they get to the tower will get a nice surprise. Have fun kiddies."

Team seven got their heaven scroll and walked over to gate 12, anxious to begin.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

As soon as the proctors at all fourty-four of the gates unlocked them, the teams bounded into the forest. Naruto quickly said to his teammates before they could go too far in

"Guys, I've got a plan." But his plan was quickly squelched as Sakura bashed him on the head "Baka! We'll follow whatever plan Sasuke-kun thinks is good." Naruto sighed to

himself knowing there was no point arguing. Sakura was impossible to deal with when it came to Sasuke. Quickly, he decided to make kage-bunshins without his team mates

knowledge, and have them act as scouts and guards for his team. "I got to take a piss." Naruto admitted. "NOT HERE!" Sakura yelled. "DO IT IN THE BUSHES!" Naruto strolled

away, thankful that his team didn't suspect anything and quickly made twenty kage-bunshins to trail his team. 15 of them henged into other nins

and ran off in groups of three while the other five henged into birds.

_Meanwhile…_

Naruto walked back into the clearing "Man so much came out. I feel great now!" He exclaimed to his teammates. Sasuke without a moment's hesitation launched a

kunai at Naruto, only to have him poof into a rain-nin. Sasuke smirked, "Nice try, but Naruto wears his kunai holster on the other leg." Sasuke and the rain-nin quickly leapt to

fight. Sasuke stabbed the rain genin, but the genin quickly ran away. Naruto walked back into the clearing just in time to see this happen and was very glad he had the kage

bunshins watching. "If we get separated again, even if it looks like one of us. Don't trust them. We'll use this as a code- A large amount of loud enemies is the friend of the shinobi.

Hide and remain silent. A shinobi must understand the proper time, when the enemy is tired and ill prepared." Sakura quickly nodded in agreement, while Naruto simply looked on

confusedly. He may have come a long way intelligence wise since he started training harder, and having clones read in the library every day, but there was no way he could

memorize a password that long. It was ridiculous. Suddenly, a huge wind swept through the clearing, Naruto tried to stick to the ground with chakra, but the wind was too strong.

So, Naruto quickly kawairmied himself with a nearby clone, cast Meisaigakure no Jutsu on himself, and watched as his clone was blown away. Sasuke and Sakura quickly tested

each other, but as Naruto stepped into the clearing and got the code right, Sasuke quickly launched a kunai at him once again. "Naruto" quickly undid his henge and reveled

himself to be the creepy grass genin from before.

"Impressive that you knew, this will be more fun that I thought."

Naruto watched in horror as the creepy tongue genin swallowed his earth scroll and flinched as the clone he kawairmed with got dispersed after being swallowed by a snake.

Naruto almost froze in fear as he watched his teammates get trapped in a gen-jutsu, but quickly shook his fear off. '_This is what I trained for… so I could protect everyone_.'

Thinking through his arsenal of techniques, Naruto cast a Magen: Nijū Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu genjutsu that Kurenai had taught him on the ninja. Naruto continued to watch in

horror as the genin, no-no way it could possibly be a genin, as the creep stared and laughed as Sasuke stabbed himself to escape the illusion. Naruto franticly tried to think of

a plan, but dashed into the clearing tackling a huge snake and knocking it away from his teammates. Standing on a branch, Naruto looked down at his team mates and said

"Sorry guys, I forgot the password."

"kukuku, I gues you dealt with my snake Naruto-kun."

"No, but some of my kage bunshins did."

'_If I couldn't beat him, there's no way that dobe can. I have to survive so I can kill Itachi there's nothing else to do_' Sasuke thought to himself and spoke up

"If you leave, I'llgive you our scroll."

Naruto looked at Sasuke furiously and yelled " You idiot, he doesn't care about the scroll. He want's us. There's no way you're the real Sasuke. He's not acoward."

And with that, Naruto leapt at Sasuke and smashed him in the face. Naruto watched as the creepy ninja summoned a snake. Naruto quickly kawairmed himself with

one of his clones once again. But this one was different. *_**BOOM**_* The clone exploded against the snake as it attacked. As the snake died, a Naruto clone threw kunai at the ninja

while Naruto leapt at the Ninja from behind, katana in hand. Naruto swung at the nin's neck, only for the ninja to melt into mud. The grass ninja reappeard once again. Naruto's

hand appeared from the ground as he tried to pull the enemy underground, but he got away again. But Naruto was no longer calm, red chakra started to leak out of him, his

canines elongated, and his eyes turned into red slits.

"Well know that is unexpected." The creepy ninja said.

Before anyone could blink, he was in front of Naruto slamming his fingers into Naruto's stomach and throwing him

against a tree. Sasuke decided to finally fight. So, Sharingan blazing, he launched shuriken at the man and quickly followed it with a fire technique.

"kukuku" The man chuckled as he easily got away from the attack. "I am Orochimaru. If you want power, you will seek me out." Orochimaru's neck snaked forward and he bit

Sasuke on the neck.

**To my readers: I'm not the greatest with fight scenes. So, sorry about this not being written so well. **

**Jutsu List:**

Meisaigakure no Jutsu- Hidden camouflage technique

Magen: Nijū Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu- Double false surroundings technique

Bunshin Daibakuha- exploding clone technique

Dochū Eigyo no Jutsu- underground fish technique

Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu- dragon fire technique


	5. Chapter 5

Firstly, I don't own Naruto. Secondly, for all those of you who complained that my chapters were too short, here you go- nice and long.

'_mmmm, nothing better than dango and green tea for when you're confused.' _ Anko mused to herself as she flicked yet another dango skewer at a nearby tree, image of a certain blonde genin in her head. The shout of a Chunin running towards her ended her thoughts.

"Anko-san! Big trouble- there are three really weird bodies in the forest."

The worried proctors dashed off towards the bodies and gazed at the faceless remains.

_'Shit. Only one persons knows this jutsu- what is that bastard doing here?'_

Anko quickly ordered one of her fellow proctors to go tell the Hokage that Orochimaru was in the forest. "and send anbu- I'm going after the bastard."

Anko leapt from tree to tree furiously trying to find her former sensei. _'what the hell is he doing here. Not that it matters right now, I'm going to stop him even if it kills me. You taught me everything I know and I'll use it all to stop you'_

Anko tried to focus as she searched for Orochimaru, but the memories kept assaulting her.

"_Come with me. You are now my apprentice." the sannin informed her. This powerful man wanted her- the girl without a bloodline, the girl no one in the class liked._

"_Hai Orochimaru Sensei" she gleefully responded as she raced after him. _………………….._ "I expect better of you Anko" he sneered as he walked away from her, the food she was supposed to have in hand._

"_Sensei, please! I almost have it!" Anko pleaded. But Orochimaru continued away from the distraught girl refusing to allow her to eat for the tenth time that week. _

…………………………"_I have no more use for you. You are weak."_

Anko snarled at the torrent of memories and pushed herself to run even faster, desperate to kill the sick bastard.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Naruto could feel himself slowly returning to consciousness. He woke up slowly, squinting his eyes at the brightness, as he heard the sound of Sakura scream. He quickly got up only to see Sakura, kneeling in horror at the sight of Sasuke, covered in weird black marks, ripping a sound genin's arms off with a look of pure sadistic glee on his face. Naruto started to run towards Sasuke to stop him, but Sakura beat him to it, leaping onto Sasuke and begging him to stop. The marks slowly left Sasuke's body and as it did he turned to the only Sound genin still conscious- "Your scroll, give it to me now or you all die." The sound genin quickly tossed his scroll to Sasuke and grabbed his team mates to get away.

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The 2nd exam was over. All the teams were gathered around the Hokage, anxiously awaiting his instructions. Naruto took the opportunity to scan the room and remaining teams to see what he would be up against.

Anko stepped forward " Congratulations on passing the second test, but I'm disappointed. There are too many of you- didn't any of you take my advice to spill some lovely blood?" She trailed off at the sight of the genin's incredulous faces and the sound of the Hokage beginning to speak.

"Although Anko is right about too many of you passing, I'd rather you not all kill each other right now. In order to lessen the amount of you, we will be having preliminaries. But 1st, some information about your third and final exam. The third portion of the exam does not begin immediately- you'll have a whole month intermission before it begins to train and strategize. The third exam is a tournament, of sorts, between the final genin remaining, which many state officials, civilians, and other shinobi will be watching. This is the final portion of the chunnin exams, which was originally formulated as a way for the five great shinobi nations to compete amongst each other for supremacy rather than engaging in war. It used to be that shinobi nations used wars to show off their strength in order to get missions- now we use this instead. Therefore we will have preliminaries so our guests will only have to watch the best of the best. Now I hand you off to your next proctor."

The Hokage watched the nervous faces of the genin as they realized that they'd have to fight yet again.

"Alright for the prelims you will be randomly matched up against someone to fight. Each match will end only when someone is unconscious, gives up, or dies. If any of you wish to forfeit, please do so now." Hayate coughed.

Kabuto stepped forward and forfeited pleading chakra exhaustion.

After Kabuto walked out, Hayate looked up at all the Genin. "Looks like no one else is giving up then. Now, if everyone can go up to the balconies on the second floor we can begin." Hayate announced as an electronic panel against the wall turned on. The genin all leapt into the stands and waited as the board flipped through names finally resting on two.

_There will be two fights different from canon: Naruto's and Hinata's. Oh, and sorry that I don't go into details for all of the fights, but if they're not really important to the plot, then I see no reason to do so when people keep yelling at me to get the next chapter out and if I spent time on those, it would take longer. _

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Yorai Akado

The match began with Yorai quickly latching onto Sasuke, sucking out his chakra. Sasuke couldn't use any jutsu, for fear of the cursed seal spreading and Kakashi ending the match. So, he did what Uchiha's do best- he stole. From his sharingan memory of his earlier fight with Lee, he quickly began a new move- lion's barrage- and with it won the match.

Aburame Shino VS. Abumi Zaku

"Second math- Haijime!" Hayate called out as he leapt away from the combatants.

Zaku almost immediately leapt at Shino attacking Shino with a wave of sound from his arm, blowing Shino back several feet. Shino mused quickly and logically to himself as he flew back from the attack. '_He expels chakra from the holes in his arms. This should be easy for my bugs_.' Shino smirked lightly as he hit the ground, his bugs already hard at work, following his plan. Some have already eaten into Zaku's chakra pathways, others were lightly swarming out of his skin.

"There's no way you'll survive a fight against me. Surrender now – I'm the worst opponent you could have drawn." Shino calmly stated.

Zaku sneered, and flung both arms out, preparing another blast in both arms. He had a moment of confusion – his attack was delayed a split second, and his arms were starting to hurt – before he discovered the hard way what Shino's real plan was.

As the pressure in his arms, Zaku screamed as both his arms were blown off beneath the elbow.

As Zaku fell to the ground, coughing and gasping, Hayate stepped announcing Shino to be the winner.

Sabuku no Kankuro VS. Tsurugi Misumi

This match ended quickly, it seemed as if Misumi was winning the whole time, but he was really fighting a puppet. The real Kankuro quickly used his puppet to win the match.

HarunA sakura vs. Yamanaka ino

This match was quickly over and barely even deserved to be called a fight. It was nothing more than a brawl with both opponents refusing to give up resulting in a double knock out. Clearly, both needed to train and become stronger.

Higarushi Tenten vs. Sabuku no temari

This was a clear mis-match from the beginning. Although these two both deserved to win, being kunoichi who took training seriously instead of mooning around as fan-girls, Tenten's style as a weapons mistress couldn't stand up against Temari's wind attacks. Nothing Tenten threw at Temari got past the strong wind she used as a defense and Temari was quickly declared the winner.

Nara shikamaru vs. tsuchi kin

"How troublesome. I have to fight a girl, and not just a girl, but a girl who has already seen me use my jutsu." Shikamaru yawned. The match began with Shikamaru sending his shadow after Kin as she fired senbon at him. Shikamaru quickly realized that she was sending some senbon with bells and some without so that he wouldn't be able to avoid the silent ones. However, Shikamaru wasn't a genius for nothing. He quickly stretched his shadow along the ground towards Kin and after catching her, made her duck backwards, slamming her head against the wall, knocking her out.

Hyuga Hinata vs. hyuga neji

"Some advice Hinata sama: Give up. You're weak and nothing can change that." Neji berated Hinata, causing her to shrink even more into herself. Neji continued verbally abusing Hinata. "You're not a good shinobi and you never will be. Forfeit."

Naruto cringed, eyes narrowing in anger as he heard Neji insult Hinata, saying things to her that went against everything he believed in. But he snapped when he heard what Neji said next. "People can not change themselves. Losers are losers- their personality and strength will never change. You can not change"

"You can!" Naruto interrupted. "Damn it Hinata! What are you doing? Say something! don't let him tell you those things like it's a fact! Come on and kick his ass!" Naruto yelled, desperately trying to get through to her. Everything Neji had said was an affront to Naruto. He had been the dobe, but no more.

Hinata looked at Naruto and then nodded to herself, yes she was ready now. She slid into her fighting stance quickly and the two sprang at each other. Naruto cringed as he watched the fight, Neji outclassing Hinata at every turn, but she kept getting back up. She refused to give up despite receiving furious blow after blow from an infuriated Neji. Naruto saw Kurenai tense and upset at the beating of her student. He couldn't stand it, first Neji thrashes his ideals, now he's hurting someone precious to him. The second the match was over, Naruto leapt over the railing to confront Neji.

"What are you doing you bastard? She was fighting as hard as she could! There was no reason for you to do what you did!" Naruto yelled.

"Oh?" Neji raised in eyebrow in scorn. "I wouldn't say that." Neji continued to lecture Naruto, his voice filled with unadulterated disdain. "I'll tell you the Hyuga destiny of hatred. The Hyuga main family has a special curse seal jutsu. It ties me down to an inescapable destiny. It is the bird in the cage seal, just as the branch family are allowed to be nothing more than birds, stuck in cages, bound to follow the main family's will. I have reason enough to know with certainty that fate exists." Neji intoned. "People can not change their destiny, dobe."

Naruto glared at Neji, and as Hinata was carried from the room on a stretcher, he bent, drawing his fingers through her blood. "I promise. You are going down." Naruto vowed as he stood and glared straight at Neji, his hand closed into a fist and dripping with Hinata's blood. With that, Naruto turned and walked back up to the balconies. '_I will show him there's no such thing as fate, that people can change themselves. And I will stop him from hurting my precious people ever again_.'

But Naruto didn't have much time to think, as the panel quickly flashed to his name.

Uzumaki naruto vs. inuzuka kiba

"Kiba, I'm sorry, but I'm going to finish this quickly. I need to win so I can go on and fight Neji." Naruto said as he bent down and pulled out his leg weights.

Kiba sneered in response. "I've already won, however much you've changed since the academy, you were still the dead last- all I need is one punch" Kiba taunted as Naruto removed his arm weights.

"Is that so?" Naruto murmured. "Then I too will end this with one punch."

Before Kiba could even blink, Naruto shot towards him fist extended and slammed Kiba into the wall.

Kiba coughed blood as he sat against the wall. '_when did the dobe get so strong_?'

"I guess I will need Akamaru after all" Kiba said as he slowly stood up.

Naruto's eyes danced with barely restrained mirth. He knew he could win this. This was what he had worked so hard for. "You get a partner, so I guess I should get one too."

Naruto quickly summoned some kage bunshin and as one, he and his clones attacked using his new combo attack: the Uzumaki Naruto rendan.

In less than a minute, Kiba was knocked unconscious.

Naruto stood over Kiba's body. "Sorry Kiba, but I have something to prove."

Up in the stands, the leaf genin and jounins looked on in shock. They couldn't believe the result of the match.

'_Though I wish it hadn't been against one of my genin, I am so proud of you Naruto.' _Kurenai thought.

'_Where did he learn all that? I never showed him any of those moves.' _Kakashi mused_._

'_Naruto? How did that dobe get so strong?' _all of his former classmates contemplated in collective shock.

'_YOSH! His flames of youth burn brightly!_' the two green spandex clad shinobi thought_._

Anko, who had watched the match with a smile, happy that Naruto had won deliberated to herself_. 'Uzumaki Naruto… I definitely want to know more about you.'_

The shinobi stopped thinking about the match as the next two competitors were selected.

Rock lee vs. Sabuku no Gaara

"Yosh! I will show that my flames of youth burn even more brightly than Naruto's!" Lee shouted as he jumped into the arena.

As soon as the match began, Lee speedily raced about, attacking Gaara with all his strength, twisting from one move to another. But it was pointless as Gaara's sand blocked his every move. Lee quickly flipped up onto a statue in the room as he contemplated his next move.

"Lee! Take them off!" Gai yelled down.

"B-But Gai-sensei! You said never do that unless I was defending the lives of people who are precious to me!!" Lee yelled up, surprised, at he crouched down on his perch.

"It's alright!! I'll allow it!!!" Gai called back, giving the 'nice guy' pose.

Lee smiled joyfully, and reached down to take off his orange leg warmers. Slipping them off revealed the weights strapped to his calves and he quickly pulled those off too, creating huge craters in the ground as he dropped them.

"Yosh!" Lee joyfully yelled as he took off, twisting into intricate tai-jutsu attacks faster than the eye could see. But it was for naught, as it was revealed that even with his blinding speed he could barely touch Gaara. Lee quickly opened five of his inner gates, but even this amounted to nothing as Gaara cushioned his fall from Lee's reverse lotus attack with his sand and proceeded to crush Lee's leg with his sand binding coffin.

Gai quickly stepped in and ended the match.

Kinuta Dosu Vs. Akamichi Choji

Chouji unfortunately had to fight the remaining sound nin who showed no mercy to him. When Chouji used his family jutsu thinking he would be save from the sound attacks Dosu proved him wrong and won the match without hurting Chouji too much.

The preliminaries now over, the Hokage spoke up. "Those of you still standing, congratulations. Take a piece of paper from this box to determine who you will fight first in the next round." As Sarutobi announced this, Hayate walked to all of the Genin allowing them to pull a slip from the box.

"You will have one month from today to train in preparation for your matches. Good luck." The Hokage stepped back and allowed Hayate to continue.

" Match one will be Hyuga Neji Vs. Uzumaki Naruto. Match two will be Aburame Shino vs. Kankurou. Match three will be Temari vs. Nara Shikramaru. Match four will be Dosu Kinuta vs. Uchiha Saskue and whoever wins that match will have to face one more opponent then every one else. The winner of match fours opponent will be Gaara of the sand."

'_I'll prove to Neji that there is no such thing as destiny and I'll show everyone how strong I am_.' Naruto silently promised himself as he saw who he would be facing first.

After that, the Hokage dismissed everyone to go prepare for the final rounds.


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto trudged about his apartment, exhausted from his time in the forest and match with kiba, musing about the upcoming finals.

'_I can't get into hand to hand combat with Neji- that would be just pointless and probably suicidal. I'm definitely going to have to work on my nin-jutsu and ken-jutsu, otherwise I won't stand a chance._' Naruto sighed to himself as he realized how hard his upcoming month would be. As he got dressed for the day, another thought struck him.

'_I should definitely increase my speed and flexibility in case I get stuck fighting Neji with tai-jutsu.' _Naruto concluded.

As he opened the door of his apartment on his way out to a weapons shop, Naruto murmured a quite shit to himself.

A note of frustration seeping into his voice, Naruto quietly voiced his problem.

"Damn it. Kakashi will probably be a lot better for the type of training that I want than Kurenai sensei."

Shrugging off his annoyance at having to ask his lazy worthless sensei for help, Naruto resolved to ask him for help anyway. After all- he had a vow to fulfill.

Naruto hurriedly walked to the nearest weapons shop willing to sell to him, only to be shocked to see who was behind the counter of the store. In stead of the scarred old man he was used to, there was Tenten, that weapons girl from the exam.

"Hey Tenten, you work here?" Naruto asked in surprise.

Looking up from her work, Tenten responded to him, "Oh hey Naruto. Yea my family owns this place. Anyways, what can I do for you?"

"Right, well I was looking to get a pair of chakra weights because there's no more room for the metal tablets I used to use. Also, I was wondering if you have anything for increasing flexibility."

Tenten quickly leapt from her seat at the counter and grabbed a pair of chakra weights from a nearby shelf. After quickly explaining how they worked to Naruto, she walked over to another shelf and pulled out something she called resistors. She handed these huge thick rubber bands to Naruto and explained that he had to wear them at his knees, elbows, wrists, and waist. Seeing the doubtful look in Naruto's eyes at the product, Tenten explained further.

"Look they're going to make it much harder for you to bend each of those areas. So, when you take them off your reactions should be much better."

Though less than persuaded that the giant rubber bands could help him, Naruto quickly purchased both the new weights and set of bands all of which he quickly put on.

' I should have realized he wouldn't be training anyone but Sasuke for the finals.' Naruto reflected as he walked dejectedly towards Ichiraku's to get some ramen.

As Naruto made his way through his sixth bowl of ramen, he realized there was someone else he could ask for help, so quickly paying for his meal. Naruto ran off to the Hokage tower, having some difficulty moving because of the resistors and the increased weight on his body.

" Hey Hokage jiji, are there any jounin who are really good at ken and nin jutsu? I need to get better at those for the finals." Naruto asked after barging into the Hokage's office.

Looking up from his huge stack of paper work, the Hokage smiled to see Naruto there, but his smile slowly disappeared as he realized what Naruto had asked.

"Naruto, Kakashi is excellent in both fields. Why aren't you training with him?" Sarutobi inquired of the genin.

"heh well you see…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously. " I did ask him, but he said he'd be away training Sasuke for the month."

Sarutobi frowned upset that Kakashi was abandoning his other Genin in favor of the Uchiha once again.

"Naruto, as much as I want to help you, you know I can't assign anyone to help you. I can't show favoritism."

The blond genin quickly interrupted. " No no no no. I just want to know who to ask. I didn't mean you should make someone train me. Besides, if they don't want to help I don't think that they're someone whose help I would want anyways."

'_when did he grow up so much_?' Sarutobi quietly contemplated to himself.

"Well, normally I would recommend asking Gekkou Hayate. However, he's an exam proctor so he wouldn't be allowed to help you. However, I do have someone else in mind. Her name is Uzuki Yugao and she's excellent in both fields you requested" the hokage suggested.

"Yatta!" Naruto shouted and quickly raced out of the office before Sarutobi could explain to him how to find her.

'_oh well, I guess he hasn't matured as much as I thought'_

"eh, Kurenai Sensei, do you know someone named Uzuki Yugao?"

"Yes I do, but why do you want to know?" Kurenai inquired out of curiosity as Naruto stood at her door.

"Well Hokage Jiji said I should ask her to help train me since Kakashi is busy with Sasuke."

Kurenai winced upon hearing this. '_I can't believe that stupid Cyclops abandoned him for the chunin exams._'

"Well I know where she normally eats dinner, we can go there and ask her if you want."

"Ok lets go." Naruto responded with a nervous look in his eyes.

'_oh shit I forgot that the stores don't want him entering_.' Kurenai franticly tried to think of a way to relax Naruto.

"Hey Naruto, no henge ok? If they refuse you service, I want to try out my newest genjutsu on them."

Naruto gave Kurenai a small grin and said "I'll only do that if it's a good one, whats the illusion of?"

Kurenai smirked, her eyes flickering with mirth, " It involved two spandex clad people with huge eyebrows and a sunset."

Naruto shivered as he remembered the tai-jutsu duo from the parts of the preliminaries that had already past. "You're evil Kurenai Sensei, and you most definitely got yourself a deal. Lets go."

**------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

"Alright Naruto, before we start training I need to know about how many clones you are good for making."

Naruto thought for a moment and then responded " Well my chakra control is a lot better than it used to be so I can probably make at least 600 now while I used to only be able to make 300." Quietly impressed and stunned at the huge chakra reserves Naruto had, after all-she at her best with full reserves could only form 13, Yugao began to think for a bit on how best to divide the clones finally coming up with the following schedule:

5-6= warm up laps

6-11=chakra control and nin-jutsu for clones while real Naruto does strength, flexibility and speed training.

11-12= lunch

12-5= chakra control and tactics for clones while real Naruto studies ken-jutsu

5-5:45= cool down laps

5:45- 6:30= dinner

7-10= control and gen-jutsu with Kurenai

Naruto stared at the schedule Yugao had drawn up, shocked by both the intense schedule and the amount of effort someone who barely knew him was willing to put into helping him. After reviewing his schedule once more, Naruto looked up at Yugao with confusion evident in his eyes.

"How come I can't use clones for kenjutsu? I did that before for that and taijutsu."

"Just because your brain knows how to do the moves doesn't mean your body will. You have to physically learn the stuff for it to really stick and be usable as instinct." Yugao explained.

Naruto gaped at his teacher. " Does this mean all my work on those things was useless?"

"Not completely, just not the best. When you yourself train those things, its more effective, but its still good to know exactly how to do the katas. Now it's 7 o'clock so form 600 clones please."

As Naruto formed his 600 clones, Yugao formed her own 10 and the ten began calling out for certain numbers to follow them. Six of the clones called for 50 clones each while the other four called for 75 clones each. The real Naruto and Yugao meanwhile, stayed with each other.

"Alright Naruto, while I work on your strength, flexibility, and speed, my clones will be teaching your clones offensive and defensive jutsus from each element, some non-elemental jutsus, and chakra control."

"Why are more clones working on each control exercise then on jutsus?" Naruto inquired.

"Well, the better control you have the easier it will be for you to do all the ninjutsu I'm teaching you. Also, with the size your reserves are, you have potential to be a ninjutsu powerhouse if you can fully control your chakra. By the time I'm done with you, the only people with better control will be medics and genjutsu experts."

Naruto nodded in understanding and Yugao began him on his exercises.

For the four hours he had until lunch, Naruto trained his body hard. Yugao had him doing extensive sets of jumping jacks, pushups, and sit ups, she had him roll a boulder up a hill, she threw senbon and kunai at him forcing him to dodge, and she took him through a series of acrobatic maneuvers designed to make him more flexible. Just two hours in, Naruto was practically begging for mercy from the harsh workout.

"I thought you wanted to beat the Hyuuga." Yugao said in attempt to get her student to finish his workout.

The fire returning to his eyes, Naruto leapt to his feet once more to drag himself through the exhaustive regimen. As it got closer to 11, clones began to disperse themselves. While Naruto pushed the boulder up the hill one last time, he received memories of his clones. He found that the ones doing control were working on tree climbing and water walking with leaves attached to their bodies while others where working on kunai spinning, floating the kunai above the hand and making it rotate with chakra. Some other clones were working by a nearby waterfall trying to walk up it. However, these were nothing compared to the control exercise that had caused Naruto sporadic winces of pain throughout the day. Yugao had had the last group of control clones working on kunai balancing, which Naruto was _very _thankful he didn't have to do himself.

"I'll see you in an hour Naruto." Yugao dismissed him.

Naruto began slowly walking to Ichirakus as he was quite exhausted, and reviewed the memories of jutsus his clones were learning. He was especially excited to see some of the fuuton, suiton, and doton jutsus he had started learning. Katon and Raiton seemed to be a lot harder for his clones to do though. While sorting through his memories, he saw that Yugao had told his clones that they had to spend at least three days on each jutsu. She wanted to make sure he had absolute perfect mastery over each of them. Almost through shuffling through his memories, a huge grin suddenly appeared on his face. _'I know shunsin now, I can just transport to Ichirakus! Yatta!'_

Naruto shunsined, but only made it 3/4ths of the way to the ramen stand. _'I can see why Sensei wants me to spend more than one day on everything now._'

After eating his usual fifteen ramen bowls, Naruto trudged back to his training field.

He was a little early and Yugao wasn't there yet, so he formed 300 clones who divided into groups of 75 each and went off to do their exercises whilst he took out his katana and started flowing through a few basic stances.

"Not bad Naruto." Yugao commented, causing him to stumble as he was unaware that she was there.

"To start off, we're going to have a quick spar so I can see how much you know"

The two quickly slid into ready stances, each waiting for the other to make a move. Finally, Naruto sliced at Yugao, but she easily dodged. The two continued slashing and stabbing at each other for a half hour, all the while Yugao testing Naruto's strength, speed, and technique. At the end of the spar, Yugao told Naruto what she had come up with " You seem very slow and inflexible, although that's probably because you just started with those resistors and you have on weights. Also, having clones study the katas definitely didn't work out because you hesitated many times during the fight because you'd never actually used the moves yourself. So for now I just want you to drill through the katas you know. At the end of the day, we'll spar again- this time you can take off your weights and resistors so that I can get an accurate gage on your capabilities. I also have three books for clones to read on tactics and I myself am going to make three clones to play against three of yours in strategy games."

"Hai Yugao Sensei" Naruto responded before quickly forming his hands into the cross seal for his most used jutsu. After a short fight between the clones about which ones had to read and which ones got to play games, three of them went of to read while the other three went off to play go, shogi, and Chinese checkers.

As his clones went off, Naruto began running through stances with Yugao correcting him each time he made a mistake. After the session passed training thus, Naruto removed his constraints and stood opposite Yugao, much lighter on his feet, and holding his katana more confidently. Naruto quickly sped at Yugao twirling his sword and attacking.

'_How much weight must he have been wearing, he's way faster than before.'_ Yugao quickly defended herself and the two continues sparring for a while. Although Naruto was much better, he was still no match for Yugao. The spar ended with Yugao's katana at Naruto's throat as he crouched panting on the ground.

"Nice job." Yugao commented as she helped Naruto up. "Just how much weight were you wearing?"

"A hundred on each limb" Naruto panted.

"Impressive."

Naruto beamed at the compliment. He and Yugao began dispelling their clones, though it took him rather longer than her because he didn't dare dispel more than 10 at once.

The two said goodbye to each other, and Naruto once again trudged off, body aching, but mind elated at how much he was learning with his new Sensei.

After a quick shower, Naruto ran to Kurenai's apartment to have dinner with her and learn some new illusions.

As the two ate dinner, they discussed what Naruto was learning and laughed over the memory of the restaurant manager yesterday after Kurenai had used her twin beast sunset illusion on him. Finally, the two got to work on his skills.

"Please form just one clone Naruto."

As soon as he did, Kurenai began speaking again. "I want you to work on meditating, and while you meditate focus on your chakra and how it runs through your body while I work with your clone on an illusion."

And so each of Naruto's days went…until two weeks in that is.

As Naruto ran laps around the training ground, he saw a very haggard looking Yugao stumble into the field. Concerned, Naruto quickly ran over to her.

"Are you ok Sensei?" Naruto asked, the worry in his eyes clearly evident.

"I'm fine Naruto, lets just spar ok?" Yugao hoarsely replied.

Naruto quickly pulled out his katana and began sparring with his Sensei, but something was clearly wrong: Yugao was much slower than usual and her attacks were sloppy. Naruto quickly stopped the fight. "Yugao Sensei, are you sure you're ok."

As her student looked at her with worry, Yugao swayed unsteadily and her grief exploded as she broke out in fresh sobs. Naruto hurriedly formed a shadow clone and sent it to get Kurenai while he himself knelt down and wrapped his sensei up in a hug to try and comfort her.

"Kurenai Sensei! Come quick to training ground 28, it's an emergency!" Naruto's clone shouted and with that disappeared. Worried, Kurenai quickly shunsined to the training ground only to be greeted with the site of a distraught Yugao sobbing into Naruto's shoulder. Noticing her arrival, the genin formed a shadow clone to go over and tell Kurenai of Yugao's sudden breakdown. Kurenai knelt by her friend and softly asked her what was wrong.

"Ha…ha..hayate…" Yugao sobbed.

Kurenai quickly enveloped her friend in a hug and decided to take Yugao to her apartment to calm her down and talk to her.

Throughout the day, Naruto slowly shuffled throughout Konoha, his mind glumly pondering what was wrong with Yugao.

'_Sensei…you were willing to help me unlike Kakashi'_

His thoughts flashed from Yugao's willingness to help him unlike his actual assigned Sensei, to Sasuke: the person Kakashi deserted him for. '_Everyone in this village loves Sasuke, but he throws away all they're admiration, affection, and help. I finally have people that offer those things to me. I don't want any of them to be hurt… whats wrong with Yugao Sensei…' _

Naruto continued sulking around the city reflecting on his time training with her: the time he had failed miserably when trying to prank her and she somehow managed to get him with his own paint trap, the times he had eaten dinner with her and Kurenai, the spar when he had finally managed to give her a small cut, the strategy games she had taught him that he now loved, and finally the effort she put in to help him and the friendship she offered him. As night began to fall, Naruto decided to go to Kurenei's apartment and find out what was wrong with Yugao. As Naruto walked up the stairs to the apartment, a woman with purple hair brushed past him on the way down.

'_Freaky exam lady? What's she doing here?'_

Shaking off his confusion, Naruto tensely knocked at the door. When Kurenai answered, and saw the subdued genin, she immediately knew what he wanted.

"Come on in Naruto. I guess you want to know how Yugao is and why she's so upset."

Naruto grimly nodded his head in response and Kurenai sadly told him that Hayate, the sickly proctor, had died and that he and Yugao had been going out.

'_Yugao Sensei must be crushed…'_ Naruto glumly thought to himself upon hearing the awful news.

"Can I see her?" Naruto softly asked with a pained look on his face. Kurenai nodded and led him to her bedroom where the distraught Yugao lay on her bed, violet hair strewn all across the pillow, sobbing. Naruto gulped as he tried to think of what to say to the depressed woman.

"I, well I've never lost anyone who was important to me before, so I can't really say I know what you feel." Naruto sighed.

"But that's because I never had anyone like that until recently. Now I have you and Kurenai sensei and Iruka sensei and it would drive me crazy to lose any of you. I just want you to know that if you need anything I'll be there for you." Naruto slowly turned to leave, unsure of what to say anymore to the depressed woman, but was stopped at the sound of Yuugao's pained voice as she called out to him.

"Naruto-kun, please don't leave…" Naruto hesitated, twisted around and looked down at the forlorn and stricken expression on his sensei's face. The distraught woman pleadingly stared at him through half opened eyes.

"Please stay with me. " Yuugao called out again. Her words touched a cord and destroyed whatever reason Naruto had to leave.

"Alright Yugao chan, I'll stay." Naruto softly said.

Naruto sat, holding his distressed teacher and friends hand until she finally fell asleep.

The genin got up and left the room, a pained look clearly etched into his features.

"Naruto?"

He didn't say a word as he brushed past Kurenai. As he continued to walk towards the door, Kurenai reached forward and grabbed onto his shoulder effectively holding him in place. He still said nothing and she saw tears forming at the corner of his eyes. Kurenai sighed and enveloped the boy in a tight hug.

"Come on Naruto kun, let it out." Kurenai prompted

Naruto began sobbing, and bawling, and wailing, but Kurenai just held him tight. She waited until Naruto's sobs quieted down and he settled into small sniffles and hiccups. He finally began to shift out of her grip but she kept her arm around his shoulder.

"So…ready to talk?" Kurenai gently asked him.

"I, I've been alone for so long because of the stupid fox. No one liked me." Naruto haltingly began, shoulders shaking from the fury that went along with the memory. Kurenai hated the damn fox for committing such terrible acts in the past, and no one could blame her for thinking so…but she _loathed _it for being the cause of grief to the youth sitting alongside her.

"But now, I have you and Yugao and Iruka and I just don't want any of you being hurt. If you have something or someone special to you, than you should be able to do everything you can to stop it from ever being hurt. But there's nothing I can do for Yugao-chan now." Naruto sadly vocalized.

"Naruto-kun, you already did do something for Yugao-chan: you showed her how much you care and how important she is to you. And Naruto, we both care for you to." Kurenai reassured him.

Slowly, Naruto stopped shaking and finally looked up at Kurenai, his eyes filled with emotion. "Kurenai chan…. Thanks."

"No problem Naruto kun. You might want to go to sleep now, the funeral is tomorrow and I know it will mean a lot to Yugao if you're there."

"I promised I wouldn't leave though." Naruto answered.

"You can sleep here."

The next day was the funeral. It was a cloudy day, rain falling unrelentingly on the small group gathered in front of the grave- soaking everyone there. Many men and women were crying to themselves or comforting others. Naruto himself was barely holding himself back from crying. He didn't know the man at all, but Hayate had been important to Yugao. So he was important to him. Naruto couldn't even begin to comprehend the amount of grief Yugao must've been feeling. As the last person went up to pay his respects, Naruto walked over to the sobbing Yugao and wrapped her in a huge hug and attempted to comfort her. After some of Yugao's other friends came over and took over with the comforting. Naruto slowly clenched his fists, determination in his eyes, and promised himself to continue to train hard for Yugao, and for the memory of Hayate.

The next three days, Naruto spent his days surrounded by clones strengthening his body and improving his Ken-jutsu skills as his clones worked on his control, nin-jutsu and strategy abilities. He continued his lessons with Kurenai at night. On the fourth day however, well, lets just say Naruto had an intresting run-in while on a run.


	7. Chapter 7

"Oy you! Ero-baka! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Naruto furiously yelled at the white haired man crouched behind the fence.

Naruto had been working on his speed, running about konoha while his clones worked on control and strategy without him. He knew Kurenai had taken Yugao to the onsen to try to cheer her up. When the man ignored Naruto, he became even more enraged- those were his senseis, no, his friends in there.

"Well then I'll make you leave!"

Naruto charged at the pervert only to be stopped at the sight of a giant toad poofing into existence under the pervert. The toad's tongue shot towards Naruto while he frantically flipped his hands through the signs for a ration jutsu. He completed the signs just in time and as the tongue wrapped around his body, electricity pored out from his skin shocking the toad and numbing his tongue. As the toad's tongue flopped in the dust and it tried to pull his now useless tongue back into its mouth, the old man turned around in irritation which quickly turned to shock.

Head tilted in curiosity the old man spoke, "What's your name brat?"

"Naruto Uzumaki and don't forget it. Now stop peeping or else I'll beat your ass old man!" Naruto growled.

The man had a thoughtful look in his eyes as he agreed to leave. _'After all, I think it is more important to ask Sarutobi Sensei why a Minoto clone is walking around Konoha when Minoto's kid died…_'

"Impressive gaki."

Nauruto whirled around to see the same pervert from earlier that day leaning against a tree watching him.

"What are you doing here." Naruto accusingly questioned.

"You've got great reflexes and speed." The old man answered, avoiding the answer to Naruto's question. He had just watched Naruto stand in the middle of a group of clones throwing kunai and shuriken at him as Nauruto bended in impossibly flexible ways and deflected or dodged every single weapon. The old man continued to stare at Naruto, as if seeing a ghost. Unable to wait any longer for the old man to explain himself, Naruto burst fourth yelling at him again.

"Why are you spying on me pervert?!"

The old man chuckled. "Me? Oh I just thought I'd check out my new student's ability."

Naruto scowled. "I don't need your help. I've already got two of the best senseis anyone could ask for."

"Oh, and who are these two? Where are they- I was under the impression your Sensei was Kakashi."

"How do you know who's team I'm on?" Naruto's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The man chuckled. "I the great Jiraya know everything." Apparently not though…When Jiraya had confronted Sarutobi about the blonde clone and learned that his student's son had lived, well that had been a shocker.

"You still didn't tell me who these Senseis are."

"You were peeping on them earlier today- Kurenai Yuhi and Yugao Uzuki. They're the best! Why would I want you're training?"

"Listen Naruto," Jiraya sighed. "I can't tell you why, but I owe it to someone to help train you. And I am one of the legendary sannin. You might find my training useful."

Naruto considered his offer- he knew Yugao wouldn't be able to help him much, she was still depressed. And Kurenai could only meet with him at night. Besides, he had a promise to keep- and he never broke those.

"Alright, I accept."

Jiraya smiled. "Good, care to show me what you've been doing?"

As Naruto showed him around each group of clones, tirelessly practicing their jutsus and chakra exercises, Jiraya halted at the sight of Naruto's clones working on waterfall walking. They were shirtless- and the seal on their stomaches was not the seal he had seen Minoto craft thirteen years ago.

"Oy, ero sensei, I thought you only peeked at girls. Why the heck are you staring at my clones like that?"

A tint of worry clearly evident in Jiraya's voice he spoke again. "Naruto, lift up your shirt for a moment and channel some chakra- I need to examine your seal."

Naruto grudgingly lifted up his shirt and channeled chakra. Jiraya muttered something to himself about Orochimaru always being with sloppy seals before unsealing the addition that Orochimaru had so kindly given Naruto.

"Ok Naruto summon 50 clones."

Naruto began to move his hands into the familiar cross shaped seal, but then paused. What had Jiraya just done to him? And why was he summoning 50 clones?

"wait what did you just do?" Naruto asked.

"Just summon the clones Naruto."

Naruto gathered the chakra and yelled out kage bunshin no jutsu, but when the smoke cleared, there wasn't 50 clones around them. There was more like 200. As Naruto gaped in awe, Jiraya explained that the seal had been messing with his control.

There were now 9 days left until the finals. Jiraya had taught Naruto how to summon and with his very high level of control from the intense exercises and release of the seal plus his huge reserves, Naruto managed to summon a toad about half his size on his first try, completely shocking Jiraya.

Naruto had now mastered all of his jutsus to the point that he could at least cut down on the number of hand signs needed if not having eliminated them all. He also had completely managed all of the chakra exercises he was taught and had now taken to doing his meditation while sitting on the waterfall, floating a kunai from both his hands with a leaf attached to his head. With Naruto's clones working on summoning so much, they had managed to summon huge amounts of toads of all sizes. While Naruto intended to do only mild training on the two days before the finals, he still had seven days left before then. And he was bored.

"Ero Sensei!" Naruto yelled. "What else have you got for me?"

Jiraiya grumbled in annoyance, there were some gorgeous girls bathing and that gaki had gone and learned summoning too quickly. _'I know it's your son, and I missed most of his life, but I need to research'_ Jiraya thought, letting out a perverted giggle at the thought of more naked bodies. Looking for a way for Naruto to learn without having to teach, Jiraya quickly settles on throwing Naruto a whole collection of books on sealing to read.

"What use is sealing?!" Naruto yelled at his perverted teacher. When Jiraya failed to respond, Naruto just summoned a clone for each book and continued to run.

At the end of the day, Naruto released all his clones before going to meet Kurenai. He started to run off, but then a huge smile burst onto his face as he assimilated what his clones had read in the sealing books. '_flash tags, smoke bombs, exploding tags, sealing my swords, hehehe I've got lots of stuff to use against Neji now.' _So, while walking off towards Kurenai's place, he began to formulate his strategy. After all, to become a chunnin you need to show intelligence- not just power. And he must be Neji- he has to prove there is no such thing as fate.

As he walked, completely absorbed in figuring out how to utilize everything he knew against Neji, he slammed straight into Sakura.

From the ground, Sakura yelled up at the blonde genin. "Watch it you baka, Sasuke would never walk into someone."

Naruto sighed. "Gomen Sakura," he apologized. 'I was deep in thought."

"Well even if Sasuke was deep in thought he would never knock anyone over- he's perfect."

With a look of utter disbelief on his face Naruto chuckled. "Oh really now?"

Seeing the look of conviction on Sakura's face Naruto sighed at the absolute fangirl nature of his teammate. "If Sasuke is all powerful, then why does he need all of Kakashi's attention for a month in order to become better for the Chunin finals?"

"Kakashi is just watching Sasuke train," Sakura retorted, hearts in her eyes. "Sasuke doesn't need any help and even on his own he'll be better than you'll ever be even with whatever idiots ever decided to train you, deadlast."

Naruto's eyes narrowed in anger. "Say whatever you want to about me, but do not ever insult those important to me. My Sensei's are the best and it is because of them that I will become better than Sasuke could ever be."

"That's impossible! Sasuke is an Uchiha and he was rookie of the year!"

"Dojutsu or not, Sasuke will never become as powerful as I will because he fights out of anger and to hurt. I fight to protect, out of love. That is what will make me strong. Despite my academy standing, I will become the best to protect what is important to me. Sasuke's anger will only hold him back."

"Sasuke was rookie of the year! Clearly your idea is wrong!"

Naruto bristled in anger and frustration, why couldn't he get through to the girl? "Standings mean nothing! I was considered the worst, and I beat Kiba. I was considered not even worthy to become a ninja, and I beat someone who Sasuke could not."

"What are you talking about? You could never beat anyone if Sasuke couldn't!"

"You've forgotten Haku already, Sakura?" Naruto whispered, clearly distressed at the memory. "Haku fought with all he had to protect Zabuza- that is what made him strong. Sasuke fought back with only a desire to prove his worth, he failed. I fought to protect those of Wave and ensure their happiness. What do you fight for Sakura? When the time comes to fight, what will give you strength?"

"I don't need to fight, Sasuke will always protect me."

Naruto sighed. _'what did I do to deserve this?'_

"Ok Sakura," Naruto said in a patronizing tone. "Let's say for arguments sake that the suuuper awesome Sasuke had to fight 20 S class ninjas. Now considering his whole family died and he's an awesome Uchiha, I'm suuure he can beat at least 18 of them. But there's still two left," Naruto continued. With a burst of speed, Naruto was behind Sakura, kunai held to her neck. "What will you do then Sakura? There's no Sasuke to help you now, just as he won't be able to help you then. Find something important to you to fight for Sakura." With that, Naruto shunsined away to his training field, too angry to go to Kurenai's apartment and leaving behind Sakura, shaken by everything Naruto had said. Unbeknownst to both of them, they had been watched by a pair of purple haired kunoichi.

The moment Naruto appeared in the field, he rushed at a training post._ What if Sakura was right? _ Naruto kicked and he punched until his anger had drained._ Am I really strong enough? Am I worth anything? _ He collapsed onto the field.

After hours of tormenting himself with questions about his worth, Naruto fell into a fitful sleep. Meanwhile, Kurenai, worried that Naruto had never shown up for his evening lesson, finally went out to try to find him. She checked his apartment, Ichiraku's, and the hokage monument. When she couldn't find him in any of those places, she frantically began searching throughout the rest of the village, finally bumping into Yugao who looked happiest she had been since Hayate's death. Before Kurenai could even ask Yugao if she had seen Naruto, Yugao began telling Kurenai about the conversation she had overheard earlier that day, tears of happiness rolling down her face.

With a lot less tact then she should have used considering her friend's lover had just died, Kurenai interrupted her.

"It's great that Naruto's impassioned defense of us made you feel loved again, but uh, more importantly- we need to find him. Now. He never showed up for his lesson."

Yugao quickly turned serious and asked where Kurenai had checked so far.

"Did you check the training grounds yet?" Yugao asked. "That's where I'd look."

"I'm an idiot." Kurenai said, shunsing off to Naruto's regular field, finding him lying crumpled up on the ground. Not wanting to wake him, she gently picked him up and brought him back to her apartment and laid him on the couch. She sat in a nearby armchair and waited for her young friend to wake up.

"Heeey Kurenai chan," Naruto said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Kurenai's eyes narrowed. "Don't you 'hey kurenai' me. Where were you last night?" Kurenai demanded.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and decided to take a leaf out of Kakashi's book. "eh? I just got lost on the road of life. That's all."

"Don't give me that crap. Yugao saw what happened and told me. It sound's to me like you won that argument with Sakura. So why is it that I found you collapsed in a training ground?"

The calm façade Naruto had been trying to keep up broke under Kurenai's gaze, cutting deeper into him than any knife ever could.

Naruto began in quite voice, almost a whisper, "It's just… what if Sakura is right? People fight all the time out of a desire to protect, and they still die. Hayate died protecting Konoha. Haku died protecting someone precious. They each fought and trained for the same reason's I do, but they lost. How can I say that my reason for gaining power will protect me and the one's I care about, when clearly it doesn't?" Naruto finished, now yelling.

Naruto's POV

I have just two days left until the finals. Just two days before I fight Neji, before I show that fate doesn't exist, before I show that I am strong and no longer a dobe, before I make those precious to me proud.

Day of the Finals:

Walking to the stadium is hard. Everyone staring at me, most hoping for me to lose and fairly sure I would lose. They're all eager to see the demon brat mess up. Too bad for them.


	8. Missing piece from C7

Sorry, I realized after I posted that in my hurry to finally add to my story, I never finished the chapter. In fact, I'm missing the end of an argument. This is a rather quickly written piece to finish the conversation right by the end of the last chapter. Sorry about Kurenai being pretty ooc, but I was in a rush to stick it in.

"Have you finished?" She asked, standing over him now.

"Yes." He answered, twirling a kunai round in his hands.

She kneeled down next to him. " You could have come to talk to me you know."

"I didn't want to worry you." He mumbled.

Her eyes narrowed. "I can't believe you! Let me tell you something Naruto. And I'm only going to say this once so you'd better pay attention." She wrenched the kunai from his hands. "You are utterly the stupidest, most self-centered, appallingest excuse for a shinobi on this planet or any other! An infantile, adolescent, pathetic specimen!" She yelled as she checked the kunai at his head, its handle banging off his forehead protecter as his eye's narrowed in anger and shame. But she wasn't done yelling yet.

"Feeling all sorry for yourself because a stupid fangirl is making you doubt in yourself and you haven't got the balls to ignore what she said. You're as bad as…as… ugh I don't know who, but didn't it occur to you that I'd be worried silly about you?"

Naruto cringed. "I didn't think that…" But Kurenai stopped him from speaking further. "That's exactly it! You didn't think! You lummox, you overgrown bubble headed.." She was prevented from further venting when Naruto launched himself at her and began to hug her tightly. Kurenai wrapped her arms tightly around Naruto and said softly "I care Naruto. You have friends now and you can't just break down on us."


End file.
